Showalter: 'This is about being the last team standing'

SARASOTA, Fla. – Very quickly, Jemile Weeks has given Buck Showalter some evidence that he could be a real find for the Orioles.

Baltimore groaned in early December when Weeks was the player the Orioles obtained from Oakland for Jim Johnson. A few weeks later, minor league catcher David Freitas was added to the trade.

At the time, Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette called it a reallocation of resources.

After the Orioles attempt to sign Grant Balfour collapsed, it took two months before they were able to sign another major free agent, and now they’ve signed three: Suk-min Yoon, Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz.

“Everybody would love to have Jimmy back, but it also allowed us to sign Jimenez, sign Cruz, do some other things and hope we can offset for his loss,” Showalter said.

Weeks made two nice plays in Wednesday’s intrasquad and on Thursday, singled and walked.

“Jemile has a chance to impact us as a second baseman this year,” Showalter said.

“He’s fit right in. He’s a plus runner. A lot of people forget that this guy hit .300 in the big leagues for a season. Not many guys out there on both sides of the ball that have done that,” Showalter said.

“You know it’s there, and it also gives us flexibility with him having an option. We’re not going to use that against him.”